Cosmo, a four-month-old hand-reared duck, was on the brink of death after eating the two-inch pin, which punctured his gizzard and left him bleeding internally.
His distraught owners, couple Sarah Simon and Joe Atkins, had considered flying the bird, which they raised from birth, to Southampton for emergency surgery until a Jersey vet offered to undertake a pioneering operation to save Cosmo’s life.
Ian Cox, veterinary surgeon at New Era Vets, consulted specialists in the UK and decided to try to save Cosmo by carrying out an endoscopy procedure which involved passing a camera down the duck’s neck and fishing the pin out.
Miss Simon, who described her and her partner as the Doolittles because they have so many rescued animals living in their home in St Ouen’s Bay, said: ‘I can’t believe it. It is nothing short of a miracle.
‘We went to the vet and they said he was basically a dead duck.
‘We were thinking of taking him to Southampton because we were distraught.
‘With Cosmo everything goes in his mouth.
‘I was making my outfit for my 40th birthday party which was a Halloween party and he pinched one of the pins.
‘I wasn’t sure if he had eaten it at first but then blood started coming out of him.
‘The pin had gone all the way down and was pointing back towards his head.’
Miss Simon and Mr Atkins have two other ducks called Puddles and Atti, two guinea-pigs, Pocket and Humbug, and a pigeon called Milly.
Two weeks after his 30-minute operation Cosmo is almost back to full fitness and enjoying the high life.
‘He has his own pen indoors with a bed and his teddy,’ Miss Simon added.
Mr Cox said Cosmo, whose parents are called Randy and Beaky, did not have time to travel to the UK as his injuries were open to infection.
‘We carried out a procedure called an endoscopy so we managed to get down and remove the pin from the gizzard.
‘If the pin had not been removed the duck would have died.
‘Because the pin had perforated the gizzard there was a chance infection could have set in – it was a nearly dead duck,’ he said.
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